Monday, 15 February 2016

BIG BOY BLOATER & THE LIMITS - ALBUM REVIEW

Big Boy Bloater is one of those
names that I've heard of for years but never taken the time to listen to -
shame on me for that. This new album, the superbly titled 'Luxury Hobo', is
nine tracks full of soul, blues, rock'n'roll and a sense of raw, unfettered
energy that is utterly infectious. Opening with 'Devils Not Angels', only the
most cold hearted and soulless music fan would remain unmoved by the swirling organ riff and chugging blues
rhythm section that gets this album off to a storming start like the spinning,
smoking wheels of a 1950s convertible starting a drag race....for pinks, of
course. Then comes 'It Came Out Of The Swamp', all Black Keys with slowed down
Lemmy-esque bass lines and the kind of rasping, sing along chorus that will
have sweating venues singing along with whisky soaked breath. This is dirty
stuff, seriously dirty stuff.

The light, poppy, surf melody of
'I Love You (But I Can't Stand Your Friends)' doesn't paint the full picture as
Mr Bloater sets about a series of character assassinations of his beau's
friends - we've all been there, right? The dirt is back on 'The Devil's Tail'
which has all the bluesy slide guitar fun of Jon Spencer and his various crews
while the main man's voice is in excellent gravel and nails form. I can only
imagine these guys being a huge amount of fun to watch live as the
instrumentation is so loose but nailed on and each note bounces off the next.
On 'I Got The Feeling Someone's Watching Me' things get a little slinky and
mysterious and you can only imagine this as the soundtrack for a sassy lady to
make a subtle yet distinct entrance to a New Orleans bar and make a purposeful
bee line to a man in a large Stetson...or just a stalker's theme.

'Luxury Hobo Blues' is all based
around a kooky, quirky little riff that sounds like my brain feels when I drag
my sorry ass out of bed each morning, all angles and twisted edges but slowly
it emerges in to a real groove - as if there was ever any doubt. More than any
other, this tune carries the theme of the album; the question of why so many of
us have so much but feel so depressed and detached from life. Despite a
slightly dark ending to the lyrical theme, 'Robot Girlfriend' is a more upbeat
tune and the groove is so deep that you can't help but get in to it, as Madonna
always wanted us to. Big Boy takes things down a notch on 'All Things
Considered' with a real Van Morrison-esque soul tune with that rasping vocal
smoothed out by some rich, velvety keys. The album closes with 'Not Cool Man'
and this is the party piece without a doubt. The slide guitar and jumping keys vie
for attention like preening men in front of the only single woman in the bar
but the basic theme here is fun so just get up and dance for crying out loud. I
thoroughly enjoyed this album from the point of view of fun, musicianship and
lyrical content - you can't ask for more than that can you?